Comments on: Agile is like ABS http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/2009/06/09/agile-is-like-abs the personal website of Patrick Kennedy Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:05:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Patrick Kennedy http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/2009/06/09/agile-is-like-abs/comment-page-1#comment-83723 Patrick Kennedy Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:31:47 +0000 http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/?p=545#comment-83723 Cheers, Vikki, that's one of the most thorough responses I've ever had. You are totally right (told you I would say so!). I'm not debating the intentions of Agile, nor its benefits, but rather this post was a response to what I referred to as the common misconception that Agile shortens time-lines. And you've shed some light on why this might be the case. cheers Pat Cheers, Vikki, that’s one of the most thorough responses I’ve ever had.

You are totally right (told you I would say so!). I’m not debating the intentions of Agile, nor its benefits, but rather this post was a response to what I referred to as the common misconception that Agile shortens time-lines. And you’ve shed some light on why this might be the case.

cheers

Pat

]]> By: Vikki Hsieh http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/2009/06/09/agile-is-like-abs/comment-page-1#comment-83722 Vikki Hsieh Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:18:24 +0000 http://www.gurtle.com/ppov/?p=545#comment-83722 From my understanding Agile is not designed to make delivery of the “complete project quicker”, it’s a customer and business focused value system that recognises (amongst other things): <ul> <li>That change happens and allows for this</li> <li>Enhanced quality at the end of the day, through iterative changes as the product is tested and the test driven design process.</li> <li>Allows the business/product owner to prioritise on what is important to their product and customers, not the IT department.</li> <li>Encourages collaboration and sharing of ideas, over tedious documentation</li> </ul> More here: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html An astute Product Manager could choose to deliver incrementally by initially focusing on components that are stand alone and could be in production much earlier…ergo the notion that Agile helps you deliver earlier. I think we get too bogged down in the process around Agile and forget that it emerged from a set of principles, where many are closely aligned to HCD principles. Our challenge is finding a way to make it work that embodies the principles and maximises the usability expertise that is available. BTW found this <a href="http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/agile-usability/" rel="nofollow">Agile UX user group</a> that might be worth exploring. Here’s the blurb: <blockquote> This group has the goal of connecting the usability community to the agile development community – and both these groups to the business community they both serve. The usability community has a lot of guidance to offer software development on requirements elicitation, product design, user interaction and interface design, and usability testing. The agile community offers the potential for higher software quality by way of agile development techniques. The agile community offers the potential for the business community to reap larger benefits through incremental delivery which might allow businesses to earn return on software sooner, or cease development on unprofitable projects before too much capital is sacrificed. But, agile software development approaches described so far seem to give short shrift to usability practices. If you’re from the agile community and disagree with that statement, this is the group where you may want to say so. </blockquote> From my understanding Agile is not designed to make delivery of the “complete project quicker”, it’s a customer and business focused value system that recognises (amongst other things):

  • That change happens and allows for this
  • Enhanced quality at the end of the day, through iterative changes as the product is tested and the test driven design process.
  • Allows the business/product owner to prioritise on what is important to their product and customers, not the IT department.
  • Encourages collaboration and sharing of ideas, over tedious documentation

More here: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

An astute Product Manager could choose to deliver incrementally by initially focusing on components that are stand alone and could be in production much earlier…ergo the notion that Agile helps you deliver earlier.

I think we get too bogged down in the process around Agile and forget that it emerged from a set of principles, where many are closely aligned to HCD principles. Our challenge is finding a way to make it work that embodies the principles and maximises the usability expertise that is available.

BTW found this Agile UX user group that might be worth exploring. Here’s the blurb:

This group has the goal of connecting the usability community to the agile development community – and both these groups to the business community they both serve.

The usability community has a lot of guidance to offer software development on requirements elicitation, product design, user interaction and interface design, and usability testing.

The agile community offers the potential for higher software quality by way of agile development techniques. The agile community offers the potential for the business community to reap larger benefits through incremental delivery which might allow businesses to earn return on software sooner, or cease development on unprofitable projects before too much capital is sacrificed.

But, agile software development approaches described so far seem to give short shrift to usability practices. If you’re from the agile community and disagree with that statement, this is the group where you may want to say so.

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